Are We Postcolonial?
Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
darancourlaferriere at COMCAST.NET
Fri Mar 10 21:34:09 UTC 2006
10 March 06
Dear Colleagues,
A problem with the RFE/RL report quoted below is that it is written in
English. Not that the report is poorly done - in fact I think it is
excellent. But it suffers from English (with the exception of two
crucial parenthetical Russian phrases in transliteration).
English does not (without some additional explanatory comments)
distinguish "russkii" from "rossiiskii." They are both "Russian." But
"Russkii narod" is a very different thing from "Rossiiskii narod,"
although "the Russian people" would be the normal translation in English
for both. For the "consolidating role" to be assigned to "russkii
narod" will offend many Muslims, Tatars, Jews, Chechens, Komi, Chuvash,
Bashkirs, Ukrainians, Tuvans, etc. For the "consolidating role" to be
assigned to "Rossiiskii narod" is more reasonable and not particularly
offensive. After all, "Rossiiskii narod" includes all those 120 or so
nationalities/ethnicities living in the Russian Federation besides the
ethnic Russians (russkie). "Rossiiskii" is inclusive, multicultural,
multinational. "Russkii" (in the present context) is exclusive,
monocultural, imperial, defensive.
Valerii Tishkov is the perfect person to head the special committee of
the Public Chamber. He has published a book - in English! titled
_Ethnicity, Nationalism and Conflict in and After the Soviet Union: The
Mind Aflame_ (London: Sage Publications, 1997). In his book Tishkov
proposes the English neologism "Rossia" to designate Russia. The
citizens of "Rossia" would then be designated "Rossians," leaving the
term "Russians" to refer exclusively to ethnic Russians ("russkie").
Civic identity would be clearly distinguished from national/ethnic identity.
To my knowledge, this terminological experiment in English has not been
picked up by anglophone scholars of Russia. Perhaps we should be
discussing it?
A final question to Professor Condee: if the bill looks like "scraps
torn at random from someone's dissertation," then whose dissertation
might this be?
Cheers,
Daniel Rancour-Laferriere
Condee wrote:
>I pass along this (just in from RFE/RL) concerning attempts to move away
>from the older identity, whether we think of it as imperial or not. The
>best bit comes toward the end of the piece:
>
><< one member suggesting the bill looked liked scraps torn at random from
>someone's dissertation.>>
>
>RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
>_____________________________________________________________
>RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly
>Vol. 6, No. 6, 10 March 2006
>
>A Weekly Review of News and Analysis of Russian Politics.
>
>************************************************************
>HEADLINES:
> * NEW BILL ON NATIONAL IDENTITY GENERATING PROTESTS
> * RUSSIA'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS HEATING UP
> * A YEAR AFTER MASKHADOV'S DEATH, CONFLICT'S END
> STILL DISTANT
>************************************************************
>
>CIVIL SOCIETY
>
>NEW BILL ON NATIONAL IDENTITY GENERATING PROTESTS. An attempt by Russia's
>State Duma to define Russian national identity has run into trouble with the
>country's Muslims and national minorities. The driving force behind a new
>bill on national identity was President Vladimir Putin himself, who has
>argued that Russians and Russia need to have a better sense of who they are.
>But when the bill was sent out for discussion last month by Russia's
>republican and regional parliamentary assemblies, it ran into a storm of
>protest. Deputies in Tatarstan, which has a large Muslim population, say
>it's an attempt to strengthen and formalize the dominant role of Russians in
>the state and therefore runs counter to the constitution.
> The idea of defining a concept of Russian national identity
>is almost as old as Russia itself -- and just as elusive. Yet Russian
>leaders cannot, it seems, resist the temptation to try. In post-Soviet
>times, Boris Yeltsin made his contribution through the new constitution of
>the Russian Federation and the start of a debate on the Russian national
>idea.
> Grigory Yavlinsky, the leader of the opposition Yabloko
>party, has appealed for a break from the imperial past. The Russian national
>idea, he says, should be based on respect. But such modest ambitions are not
>in keeping with President Putin's vision of a muscular new Russia pumped up
>by petrol and gas.
> The problem is easily enough defined: how to create a sense
>of shared identity in a country divided by race, language, religion and,
>increasingly, class and wealth? How to give a sense of purpose to a new
>state that is still only just emerging from the ashes of the Soviet Union?
> Putin's answer is taking the shape of a bill on the fundamentals of
>state national policy, which sees its main aim as strengthening the
>formation of a united multicultural society. Few, it seems, have any problem
>with that.
> Where some do have a problem, though, is with the "consolidating
>role" assigned by the bill to the Russian people ("Russkii narod") in
>"providing the unity of the country and strengthening the vertical of
>power." Perhaps they sense an echo of the guiding role assigned the Russian
>people in the Soviet Union?
> The proposed legislation has stirred up a hornets' nest
>of protest in the predominantly-Muslim republic of Tatarstan, which has
>grown used to a considerable measure of autonomy in the years since the
>Soviet collapse. On March 3, its State Council Committee on Culture,
>Science, Education, and National Affairs flatly rejected the bill. Foat
>Galimullin, a deputy in the republican parliament, discussed this issue with
>RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service.
> "We have already survived that unrealistic experiment to create a
>Soviet nation during the era of the USSR," Galimullin said. "And now, once
>more, we have plans to create the Russian nation. I consider this law
>provocative in principle and I think that it should be for sure rejected."
> Indus Tahirov, another deputy in Tatarstan's parliament,
>said the bill was at odds with the federal constitution, which emphasizes
>the multiethnic nature of the Russian people (Rossiskii narod).
> "The bill cannot be accepted in its present form, first of
>all because it is not in accordance with the norms of international law,
>secondly because it contradicts the Constitution of the Russian Federation,
>and thirdly because it does not strengthen mutual understanding among the
>peoples of the country because of the articles, which especially stand out
>concerning the Russian language and the Russian people."
> Tahirov and other deputies have taken particular issue with the
>provisions of the bill on the Russian language. Tufan Minnullin points out
>that a demand contained in the bill that every citizen should know the
>Russian language is at odds with the federal constitution. What does "know"
>mean, he asks, and what is the punishment to be for not knowing?
> "This is a very insidious law. It gives the impression of defending
>the Russian people, but in essence it is directed against the Russian
>people. It appears to compliment the Russian people but actually it sets the
>Russian people up against all the other peoples. Then there is that terrible
>article where it states that citizens of the Russian Federation are obliged
>to know the Russian language. What does it mean: "obliged"? If they have to
>imprison me, what will they do?"
> It is not just Russia's religious and ethnic minorities
>who are alarmed. Russia's Public Chamber -- set up last year as a sort of
>collective ombudsman to monitor the work of parliament, as well as federal
>and regional bodies -- was dismissive, with one member suggesting the bill
>looked liked scraps torn at random from someone's dissertation.
> The chamber has set up its own committee to examine the bill, which
>will report back in three months. Valery Tishkov is the head of its
>Commission on Tolerance and Freedom of Conscience and a leading expert on
>ethnicity and nationalism. He told RFE/RL's Russian Service that he sees no
>place for a "consolidating role" for the Russian people in the modern
>Russian state.
> "We should be talking not just about the multicultural, complex
>composition of the Russian people, but also about its unity. It is
>impossible to create one people out of 100 peoples. We should not be talking
>about how to make one nation out of 100, but about the recognition --
>recognition not formation -- of our genuinely existing unity, while at the
>same time preserving all our traditions."
> The fact that this legislation is already running into
>trouble suggests how much Russia may be changing. At the heart of the debate
>over the new legislation lies the Kremlin's fear over Russia's demographic
>future. Russia is a multiethnic country, whose large Muslim population is
>growing as fast as the ethnic Russian population is shrinking. The country's
>national and religious minorities are becoming increasingly aware of their
>growing weight and importance in society. The Russian national idea may
>never be quite the same again. (Robert Parsons)
>
>
>Prof. Nancy Condee, Director
>Graduate Program for Cultural Studies
>2206 Posvar Hall
>University of Pittsburgh
>Pittsburgh, PA 15260
>412-624-7232
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Slavic & East European Languages and Literature list
>[mailto:SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU] On Behalf Of Tony Anemone
>Sent: Friday, March 10, 2006 2:15 PM
>To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.CUNY.EDU
>Subject: [SEELANGS] Are We Postcolonial?
>
>The upcoming issue of _PMLA_ will have a special section ("Are We
>Postcolonial?") based on the AATSEEL roundtable that Gayatri Spivak
>ran, with papers by Vitaly Chernetsky, Nancy Condee, Dragan
>Kujundzic, and
>Harsha Ram.
>
>* * * * * * * *
>"Вы считаете, что война необходима?
>Прекрасно. Кто проповедует войну - в
>особый, передовой легион и на штурм, в
>атаку, впереди всех!"
>
>Л. Н. Толстой, Анна Каренина, ч. 8, гл. XVI.
>
>* * * * * * * * * *
>
>Tony Anemone
>Associate Professor of Russian
>P.O. Box 8795
>Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
>College of William and Mary
>phone: 757-221-3636
>fax: 757-221-3637
>
>
>
>
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